In order to maximize profits and improve the overall customer experience in a store, retailers often design floor plans that optimize the usage of available space. As part of this optimization, store layout and planning software may be used to manage where individual planograms (diagrams that specify where and in what quantity items should be placed) should be arranged in the store. In the past, store planning software required local installation, either via a program installed on a computer or a plugin downloaded from a website. However, these local solutions are unable to leverage information about the effectiveness of floor plans in other stores operated by the same retailer. Further, each store may implement systems on a plurality of different operating platforms, increasing costs on developing standardized tools for use by every store. Accordingly, there is a need to centralize the floor planning software in a way that is easily compatible with every store location in order to more accurately determine sales patterns or trends. For example, the retailer may be able to efficiently aggregate floor plan data across multiple stores to generate inputs into a floor space optimization program, such as the one described in pending provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 63/040,067, filed on Aug. 21, 2014, and entitled “FIXTURE-AWARE SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY ALLOCATING FLOOR SPACE,” the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
As part of the store layout and planning process, a retailer may develop new planograms that must be assigned a location within the store. Similarly, the retailer may create a requirement that an existing planogram is to be relocated to a new department within the store. The past systems would require the store or district manager download the new planogram to the local computer, save the changes locally, and subsequently upload the updated floor plan back to the centralized database. This time-consuming process prevents management from addressing the store's more pressing needs. Thus, there is an opportunity for a system that enables store managers to modify planograms assignments corresponding to a floor plan more efficiently by interacting with the floor plan data centralized server without the need for transferring large volumes of data across a communication network.
In another aspect, a manager may want to quickly know where any product or planogram in the store is located. To that end, the store layout application needs to be able to represent search results in a manner that quickly calls attention to the location of the desired assigned planograms. Similarly, in order to effectively manage a store's inventory, a store manager may also want to know how future scheduled product changes will impact or have impacted planograms located throughout the store. In other aspects, retailer may inquire if a store is complying with a product strategy based by ensuring all required planograms are assigned a location in a store. For all of these reasons, a centralized store layout application can allow quicker and more efficient control of a store's inventory and compliance with product strategy.